


Cereal Boxes

by sirdust



Category: Hazbin Hotel (Web Series)
Genre: Anxiety Attacks, Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-15
Updated: 2019-11-15
Packaged: 2021-01-30 20:39:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21434368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sirdust/pseuds/sirdust
Summary: Husk and Niffty go grocery shopping. Results are mixed.
Relationships: Husk & Niffty (Hazbin Hotel)
Comments: 15
Kudos: 136





	Cereal Boxes

The supermarket smells like rotten meat and the orange aluminum tiles glisten with sticky fluids, but Niffty is on a mission. Husk trails after her determined gait, nursing a bottle of vodka that he didn’t have the heart to abandon back at the hotel. He pushes the shopping cart with his free hand. The little demon in front of him is too short to reach the handle.

Niffty’s eye darts about as she searches for her target. Over the PA system, a cracking and warbling voice drones along to a piece of upbeat electro-pop. The music is accompanied by the sound of one shopper beating another to death two aisles away for the last box of processed muffins. The noises blend together into a surprisingly harmonious grocery shopping soundtrack.

She pulls out a crumpled and yellowed piece of paper. Various foods and ingredients have been scrawled on it in hasty cursive, but the scribbles are perfectly legible to Niffty’s trained eye. Husk isn’t sure how she does it.

“What are we out here for again?” he asks, staring down into the bottom of the bottle in his paw. Niffty glances over her shoulder.

“The kitchen barely has anything in it. It’s the saddest kitchen I’ve ever seen, Husker.” She turns around and grips the iron bars on the side of the cart in the same way a child would. “You’re my arms,” she shout-whispers.

“I meant what we’re supposed to be getting.”

“Oh!” Niffty hops backwards, perking up. She counts off on her fingers as she relays the items from the list. “Milk, eggs, bread, butter, olive oil, flour, oregano, goat blood…”

Husk suppresses a sigh and props his elbow on the handle of the shopping cart, allowing his chin to rest in his palm. He listens haphazardly as Niffty states every mundane and strange pick to stock the pantry with. Once she’s nearly out of breath from finishing her long-winded tirade, he opens his mouth.

“Some basic shit and some shady shit. Got it.”

Niffty grins and nods once, standing proud. Husk finishes the rest of his booze off and nearly tosses it into a nearby garbage bin without looking. He hesitates only when he realizes that Niffty will go out of her way to pick up the mess if he misses his shot. He resists the urge to grumble as he shuffles over and drops it into the can like a brick.

Niffty is bouncing in place with an impatient expression when he returns to the cart. Her mouth is drawn tightly into a lowercase U and her heels oscillate up and down, but when Husk returns to his position as basketkeeper, she settles into a more relaxed pose. Still bursting with energy, of course. She always is.

The two shoppers ignore the sound of a shelf filled with canned beans being torn apart across the store and continue on their semi-merry way.

* * *

Niffty would never have guessed that salt would be so difficult to find in Hell, but she has a sixth sense for seeking out the ingredients that she needs, even if said ingredient is highly corrosive to the flesh of sinners when it isn’t prepared properly. She attempts to shove the tube-shaped box between a container of breadcrumbs and an entire wrapped devil fish laid out on ice. Husk recoils back for a moment before giving in to anxiety and grabbing it from her claws. She protests with a weak gasp.

“If you try and shove it in like that, it’s gonna explode and burn us to a fuckin’ crisp,” he says, lording it above her reach. “You gotta put it in all careful-like.” He sets it gently on top of a box of popsicles that are probably already melting.

Niffty lets out a histrionic sigh and descends from the tower of groceries stacked high within the cart. Her faux-glum demeanor is dropped as soon as she pulls out her mistreated grocery list yet again, doing a once-over before hastily shoving it back into the waistband of her skirt. She brushes out the wrinkles in the hem and flashes a toothy smile.

“We’re all set,” she cheers. Husk acknowledges the unspoken instruction with a grunt and swings around, pivoting the unwieldy and overflowing cart towards the general direction of checkout. Niffty hums to herself as she skips along the unsanitary floor before stopping suddenly. Husk has to pull hard to keep the cart from bowling her tiny frame over.

"Hey, what's the matter?"

Niffty pauses for a moment. Before Husk has the chance to say anything else, she jumps back into her typical boisterous tone.

"We forgot something."

Husk isn't sure if it's his drunken brain messing with his perception or not, but he could swear he hears her voice waver a bit.

"...Did we?" he asks. He doesn't want to stay here much longer. The fluorescent lights and sounds of employees being screamed at are beginning to aggravate his permanent headache further. "I can run and get it. You stay with the cart."

"No!" Niffty exclaims. Her skirt flies around her spidery legs as she whips about, arms reaching desperately. Husk flinches in surprise. Niffty's eye widens in shock for a moment before she regains her composure, planting her legs firmly beneath herself and holding her arms demurely behind her back. "I mean... no, it'll be way more fun if we go together." The enthusiasm in her voice is now drippingly, sickeningly saccharine. It's fake.

Husk's headache is bad enough as is. He thinks to himself that it'll be easier if he just plays along.

"Alright. Where are we going?"

Niffty places a razor-sharp finger to her chin, gears in her brain turning as the rest of whatever plot she's cooking up takes form. A lightbulb seems to go off above her head.

"Cereal!"

"Cereal?" Husk replies, his voice skeptical. Niffty hates anything that isn’t home-cooked. It was one of the first things he learned about her, for Christ’s sake. She’s really reaching.

“Cereal.” She puts her hands on her hips and glances at the signs high above her, each proclaiming the contents of their respective lanes. After a brief moment, she begins her march towards Aisle 7. Husk feels like a zombie at this point, considering all of the mindless walking he’s been doing.

The shelves are stocked with boxes that have grotesquely oversaturated cover art plastered on all sides. It’s the visual equivalent of the same sugar rush that any number of disgustingly sweet selections in the aisle would provide. Husk watches Niffty trot up to the outer edge of one of the shelves. She picks up a box of something that boasts zero vitamins and minerals whatsoever before placing it onto the tile as if she’s worried it will fall over and spill. Her next point of interest claims in big bold text that its parent company is holding a sweepstakes to give out a century’s supply of cocaine.

“Hey, what kind of cereal do you think our new friends would like?” Niffty asks, not taking her eye off of the shelves.

“I dunno. None of them really seem like the cereal type,” Husk says. “Except for maybe the blonde one. I wouldn’t know.”

“Well, that’s no help at all,” Niffty huffs. She begins shuffling through the choices before her at a faster pace. “Husker, I have to make sure that they trust me as their cook. I’m the lady in charge of their meals! If I pick the wrong cereal, how will they be able to believe that I’m qualified for the part?” She gives a mild grin and lightly bonks one cereal box against her head a couple of times. “They won’t.”

“If they expect you to know their tastes in whatever sugary bullshit they wanna shove in their faces, they’re a bunch of idiots.”

Niffty raises her head to glare at Husk. There’s a reserved element to her expression that makes him uncomfortable.

“That’s not a very nice thing to say about our new friends.”

Husk sighs. He isn’t in the mood to argue.

“I’m just sayin’ that if they judge you based on that, they’re the kind of people who get their hopes up way too high.”

Niffty haphazardly grabs a couple of boxes and hands them to Husk, who balances them on top of the already-gargantuan pile of groceries. He isn’t sure how they’re going to carry all of this back to the hotel.

“Well, it’s fine,” Niffty remarks. “I’ll just get a bunch of different kinds, and then there’s something for everybody.” She grabs the next box more roughly. Her mouth has wound itself into a U-shape once again.

“Niffty,” Husk sighs, “it’s no big deal.”

Ah. He was trying not to upset her, but Niffty’s expression has hardened. Wrong choice of words.

“Yeah, yeah, I know, I know,” she repeats, grip tightening. The cardboard beneath her fingers begins to crumple. Her claws poke holes into the soft surface. “I’m making a fuss. Causing a scene.”

Husk blinks once before looking around the aisle. There’s nobody here. He can smell smoke and see a crimson glow from across the building.

“No, I think everybody else is busy with the fire.”

Niffty ignores his deadpan comment. She’s stuck entirely in her own head.

“Al tells me that it’s fine, that I don’t have to worry about every little thing I do around them, but then I go and do something like this.” The pink cereal flakes are beginning to escape a few at a time from their manufactured prison, but Niffty doesn’t seem to notice the mess. Husk moves to place a paw on her shoulder but stops himself. Niffty continues, looking a little wild.

“And they’re going to find out that I can’t handle simple things like picking out their food, and they’re going to not want to be friends anymore, and it’s going to be all my fault. And if I try to defend myself I’m gonna know that I’m lying through my teeth, but--”

The box rips in half with a loud tear. Niffty cuts herself off as the rest of the cereal falls to the sticky ground below. Husk remains quiet as he watches the venom in Niffty’s face shift to something unreadable in the blink of an eye.

After a moment, Niffty’s bottom lip quivers. Her giant eye fills with tears.

Shit.

“Niffty, don’t--”

“No.” Niffty cuts him off, shoving a hand in his direction for emphasis. “It’s fine,” she continues. Her voice cracks. “I’ll clean it up.”

“No, goddammit, I was gonna say don’t cry,” Husk fumbles, his hands covering his face. He feels--he _ is_\--awkward. He’s already bad at feelings but he’s even worse at other people’s feelings, and if Niffty bursts into tears here, he knows he won’t have the words to comfort her. He's just gonna sound like the drunken moron that he is.

“I’m sorry,” Niffty says, seeming to have brushed his words aside. She squats and attempts to scrape the cereal that’s fallen onto the ground back into its container, using the two halves of the box like a dust pan and a broom. “We haven’t seen each other in years, and I was hoping we could hang out like we used to, but I screwed it up again. I just wanted to spend some more time with you. I know you like me, but I don’t know if they do, and now you probably don’t either.”

She looks utterly miserable. Something in the pit of Husk’s stomach twists painfully. It isn’t nausea. A minute passes in silence.

“Uh, fire’s getting bigger,” he notes, glancing back towards the blaze. “We should leave.”

Niffty’s brow furrows in frustration. “But--the mess. The shopping. I gotta finish.”

Husk’s expression morphs into a grimace. “The mess is gonna turn into a pile of ash, and none of the employees are at the register. They’re too preoccupied with trying to keep the fuckin’ building from burning down.”

He takes her little hand in his and pulls her towards the exit with him, ditching the ridiculously stacked shopping cart behind them. Niffty follows with little resistance, moving in short hops to keep pace with Husk’s longer strides.

The soft glow of the pentagram hanging in the sky is a welcome replacement for the buzzing lights of the supermarket. By the time the pair exits, a corner of the building has gone up entirely in flames. Well, they aren’t going to be stopping at this place again any time soon.

Niffty seems almost entranced as she stares at the flames. Husk nudges her shoulder gently. She snaps out of her trance and looks up at him instead.

“Let’s go back to the hotel,” he says.

“But we don’t have any groceries. Al asked me to--”

“Al can do his own damn shopping,” Husk interjects. “You and I both deserve a fuckin’ nap.”

His quip is met with silence. After a beat, he pats her on the head, arm as stiff as a robot. He quickly returns it to his side, feeling dumb for attempting such a cheesy gesture.

Niffty’s giggle is quiet, but the tired smile on her face is genuine.

It makes Husk feel a little less world-weary.

**Author's Note:**

> this started off as an idea for something cute and funny and then i accidentally put in emotions. anyways i want these two to have a close friends/familial dynamic i think that would be cool  
idk if this is in-character or not but oh well


End file.
